Kennystix's podcast
All Israel Will Be Saved
The scripture text for this morning's message is from Romans chapter 11 verses 23 through 29 and Even they if they do not continue when their unbelief will be grafted in for God has the power to graph them in again For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and Grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree How much more will these the natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? Less you be wise in your own conceits. I want you to understand this mystery brothers a Partial hardening is come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and In this way all Israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer will come from Zion He will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins As regards the gospel lay our enemies of God for your sake, but as regards election They are beloved for the sake of their forefathers For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable Let's pray together We say it from the bottom of our hearts You never failed us you never failed us We have failed you And it makes us tremble to think about grace and mercy Day and night Never leaving us never forsaking us so we say thank you and we resolve with the power of your Holy Spirit to put all conceit out of our lives all boasting over the broken-off branches of Israel all pride and presumption ethnocentricity racism That would cause us to puff ourselves up over another To that end we want to Understand what Paul meant when he said that you may not be conceited. I want you to understand this mystery Hardening has come upon Israel Till the fullness of the Gentiles comes in Then this way all Israel will be saved So this you must understand in order not to be an arrogant people So that's what we're after Lord. We're after the gift of humility Through understanding your word These help us in this now in Jesus name amen So God has us in Romans 11 now at a very remarkable point in American culture American history The place of Israel in the Middle East is Perhaps the most explosive and significant issue in the world As far as world stability and world peace goes The place of Israel in Minneapolis and St. Paul vis-à-vis the church of Jesus Christ Is a front burner issue for some people this very morning? And so it seemed wise to me to put today's message into that context of the urgency of the issue of Israel Today and next Sunday I received a email on Friday from a rabbi Address to about a dozen downtown clergy churches that you'd all know about in Mile from here, so And I want to read you from it in order for you to sense What the Gibson movie the passion of the Christ Signifies to Jewish people and the implications it may have for Jewish Christian relations So here is an excerpt from that email It is with this sense of respect and need for dialogue That we raise our concerns about this film with you We are gravely aware of the potential rifts this film could open once again not only between Jews and Christians But between Christians of different viewpoints Our world has become all too polarized in recent years, and we believe this film promotes that very polarization After viewing the film we are deeply troubled With the way in which Jews are portrayed no religious racial or ethnic group welcomes being stereotyped This film portrays Jews who did not follow Jesus as a bloodthirsty crowd Demanding the crucifixion of Jesus unyielding in their lust for his torment and death For almost 2,000 years the week leading up to Easter was a time when some of the worst violence against Jews occurred often because passion plays Encouraged an interpretation that blamed Jews collectively for the death of Jesus and also served as a reminder that Jews do not accept Jesus In recent decades the Catholic Church and many Christian denominations recognized that the charge of deicide the murder of God and The depiction of Jews in passion plays have led to the death expulsion and horrific mistreatment of Jews the repudiation of the deicide charge by the Catholic Church and others and Calls by leadership groups with Christianity for within Christianity for responsible Accurate Sensitive portrayals of the passion mark those words a Call for responsible accurate sensitive portrayals of the passion have played an instrumental role in Not only diminishing tensions between Christians and Jews, but building relationships based on trust in mutual respect We hope that as you and your congregants View this film and talk about it You and they will gain awareness of the Jewish perspective and welcome The Jewish perspective and come to understand the source of our concerns and the sincerity of our prayers for peace and understanding We asked Christian clergy to discuss these perspectives with their congregants as They wrestle with the meaning and their understanding of this controversial film Our hope is that all religious institutions find in their mission to build bridges of understanding and peace Now I make no effort this morning to Defend the movie You must decide in seeing it whether it is a responsible accurate sensitive portrayal of Jesus final suffering My concern now and here is to simply make planes that the bridge of peace and understanding built between the Christian community in Minneapolis and the Jewish community in Minneapolis by Romans 11 is a bridge Over which Jesus Christ walks Saying I am the way the truth and the life Nobody comes to the Father but by me It's a bridge over which we walk behind him praying broken-hearted humble longing yearning with the words There is one name under heaven Given among men by which we must be saved the name Jesus Christ and There is no love To be shown any other way In order that Jew and Gentile might be saved from the wrath to come First Thessalonians chapter one verse 10 you don't need to go there says Christians wait for God's Son from heaven Whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come Now the reason I refer to that verse is because the phrase Who delivers? Is the same word and the same construction of the word found in Romans 11 26 Where it says and in this way all Israel will be saved as Is written the deliverer now that's the same word and same construction of the word the one who delivers will come from Zion either Jerusalem or the heavenly Jerusalem and He will banish ungodliness from Jacob So we see that the deliverer who will save Israel is Jesus Comes in order to deliver us from the wrath to come. This is not a political Military deliverance This is a deliverance that happens through the banishing of ungodliness and the next phrase Is and he will make a covenant with them and it will be the forgiveness of their sins the banishing of ungodliness and the forgiveness of sins Is the deliverance of all Israel from the wrath to come? And that's the bridge we build And if in walking across the bridge with this gospel Calling Jew and Gentile to believe in Jesus They ask what they must do we say from verse 23 of Chapter 11 if they do not continue in their unbelief they will be grafted in again so I say clearly and fourth rightly With no hedging There's a bridge of peace with God and each other And there's a bridge of understanding that must be built and the bridge of Romans 11 is first an explanation and then an invitation That there is one tree With one root in the Abrahamic Covenant And one Messiah Deliveror By which through faith in him we are united to this tree or broken off from this tree Faith alone in him now constitutes this tree of Salvation That's the bridge of understanding. That's the bridge of explanation. That's the bridge of invitation Which Christians on their knees ready to die? Speak to the Jewish community and to the fullness of the nations that are on their way in Now I state it Clearly because I am fully aware that it is not believed and not appreciated in the Jewish community Nevertheless We go with the Apostle Paul in prayer chapter 10 verse 1 My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved We go with Paul in Romans 11 14 I magnify my ministry to the Gentiles in order if by any means I might make my kinsmen my Jewish kinsmen jealous If by any means I might save some of them However There is another view and it is a tragic view. It's a sad view Namely That there's a Jewish way to God and There's a Christian way to God There are two covenants and two tracks bound for glory Let me read for you The words that John start in his commentary on Romans 11 26 writes concerning this very common teaching Which is much abroad in the Jewish Christian dialogue in the Twin Cities It is understandable that since the Holocaust Jews have demanded an end to the Christian missionary activity among them And that many Christians have felt embarrassed about continuing it It is even suggested that Jewish evangelism is an unacceptable form of anti-Semitism So some Christians have attempted to develop a theological basis for leaving Jews alone in their Judaism Reminding us that God's covenant with Abraham was an everlasting covenant They maintained that it is still in force and that therefore God saves Jewish people through their own covenant Without any necessity for them to believe in Jesus This proposal is usually called a two covenant theology Bishop Christor Stendall was the first one of The scholars to argue for it namely that there are two different salvation tracks Christian track for the believing remnant of Jews and the believing Gentiles and a track for historical Israel which relies on God's covenant with them Romans 11 starts as Stands in clear opposition to this trend Because of its insistence on the fact that there is only one olive tree To which Jews and Gentiles believers Both belong The irony of this writes Tom Wright is that the late 20th century in order to avoid anti-Semitism has advocated a position the non evangelization of the Jews Which Paul regards? precisely as anti-Semitic a Men and a men to John Stott's words There is an anti-Semitism And it is a bridge with two tracks A track that says to Jews you may get to heaven and be reconciled with your holy God Without trusting in Jesus as your Savior and Lord Messiah and treasure That's anti-Semitic with a vengeance And we will not fall into that pattern of anti-Semitism that cries down judgment On a people being steered away from their only hope of Reconciliation with God we will not be a part of that anti-Semitism So let the point be made clearly today and the point of this text is not merely that Christ Is the only way that all Israel can be saved? The point of this text is mainly This salvation of all Israel will most certainly happen That's the point of this text verse 29 underlines or undergirds or is the foundation underneath that certainty God has given mark the word given covenant and promises to Israel and God has called mark the word called Israel out of the ear of the chaldis to be a people of his own to be a blessing to the nations verse 29 says the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable That's the foundation in verse 29 under the preceding Verses of promise, so let's read verse 25 and 26 lest you Gentiles Be wise in your own conceits as You walk across this bridge with this message to Israel. I want you to understand this mystery brothers a partial hardening There are Jews being saved. It's not a total hardening A partial hardening has come upon Israel. We saw that back in verse 7 until market there's going to be an end to it The Gentiles the fullness of the Gentiles comes in you wonder why we're a missionary people Because a fullness of the nations is coming in every tribe tongue people and nation will be gathered into the fullness of The Gentiles and not until that happens will the rest of history happen Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and in this way All Israel will be saved as it is written The deliverer will come from Zion He will banish ungodliness from Jacob This will be the covenant And I make with them When I forgive their sins So it does not say all Israel may be saved It says all Israel will be saved Now I have taught for several months that what that means is that there's coming a time in which the generation the ethnic reality the national totality not necessarily every single individual because frequently in the Bible the term all Israel when it said all Israel gathered at Succoth but doesn't mean there weren't a few people left back in town. It just means en masse they moved so my understanding of this is that there's coming a day in which godliness ungodliness will be removed Hardening the hardening until the fullness of the Gentiles and then it will be removed Forgiveness of sins will be granted grace will draw all Israel into the Christian church Which is a very Jewish church if we know ourselves well And be saved from the wrath to come Now I'm aware Kindly aware that that's not the only Evangelical interpretation of the term all Israel here They give you two other interpretations and there are some of you in this church who hold these views And I want to speak without ranker and without separation about the differences Here are the two main other views and I regard them as totally legitimate Theologically in other words to hold them does not in any way make you close to a heretic because They don't contradict biblical theology elsewhere Another view besides mine is that all Israel refers to Jew and Gentile who are saved Because the Bible treats the church as the true Israel That's right. It is the true Israel and Therefore it does not this view doesn't think that there's a mass conversion coming for the nation It just says that all the Jews and Gentiles that will be saved through history are All Israel and that's how they get saved by a hardening for a season and then All the Gentiles coming in. Here's the second view. It's almost the same a little different the second view says No, all Israel is Jews ethnic Jews, but it's just those who through history are being saved Because Paul says back in verse 14 I magnify my ministry among the Gentiles if by any means I might save some and in this way Saving some in each generation all Israel that is all the remnant not any future big Turning of Israel as a nation so that the two alternative views simply say that's what what Piper says is coming isn't coming It's being built along the way Well, that is not a big theological difference. It's a big eschatological difference in that our expectations of what's coming is different But theologically I have no problem with those two views and so if you hold those views I'm not going to get been out of shape, but I hope you will let me now give you five reasons for my view All right Five pointers and they aren't the only ones just ones that you can see with me as to why I'm persuaded that the phrase all Israel means that the very nation that's hardened as a whole Will one day be saved as a whole. I think that's the pattern all through this chapter. So here's reason number one When you look at verses 25 and 26 The the term Israel in verse 25, I think should be the same as the meaning in verse 26 verse 25 says Let you be wise in your own conceits. I Want you to understand this mystery brothers a partial hardening has come upon Israel now Everybody agrees. That's the nation as a whole there are exceptions of course Jews for Jesus when they hit a city with Behold your God campaign a few dozen Jewish people believe in every city maybe a few hundred But of the 14 million in the world Most of them don't yet And so upon a hardening has come upon Israel is is a totality with exceptions So when you read verse 26 until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in and in this way All Israel now should it have a different meaning than it just had in verse 25 and I say no It should have the same meaning you shouldn't give Israel a different meaning in verse 26 That it had in verse 25 and the meaning it has in verse 25 is this massive group of ethnic national Israel Not believing and they're one day that group that Israel is going to believe second argument The banishing of ungodliness from Jacob in verse 26 that term Jacob I think most naturally refers to Israel as a whole and in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written The deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish on godliness from Jacob No, it's natural way to understand banish on godliness from Jacob is that Jacob in the Old Testament is a common word to refer to the people as a whole Not not a tiny remnant Third argument In verse 28 the two halves This one is a very strong argument to me one of the strongest Consider these two halves of this verse and ponder who the they is in both halves as regards the gospel They are enemies of God for your sake So this is They are enemies. Who's that? That's the mass the totality of unbelieving Israel Resisting their Messiah and here called enemies of God For your sake meaning the fullness of the Gentiles are coming in for a season Now, I don't think the they in the first half of the verse should be different from the They in the second half of the verse, so let's read on But as regards election They to say in they it's the same group they are Beloved for the sake of their fathers in other words if the root was holy the branches are going to be holy some day the they is going to experience the saving work of the one who chose them This this does not mean that every Jew who's ever lived is saved It means that the totality that is once Unbelieving that totality at a future generation is going to be acted upon by the deliverer He will banish on godliness He will forgive their sins and they will be grafted back into the tree and we will be one people Jew and Gentile in the presence of King Jesus forever. That's the eschatology That's the final thing that I see coming argument number four verse 12 This parallel carries through now if there that is the Jewish nations the nation the ethnic whole if their trespass means riches for the world there's the Gentiles streaming into the tree and if there It is the Jewish nations failure means riches for the Gentiles. That's our salvation coming to us because The Messiah was sent to Gentiles how much more will there the same people fullness mean The full inclusion and I don't think we should change the meaning of there From their trespass and their failure to their fullness and say the there here is totality and the there here's a little tiny remnant I don't see it. I think Paul is carrying through this parallel all the way verse 15 final argument For if their Jewish nation as a whole rejection Means reconciliation for the world. That's us being folded into Christ because of this what will their Acceptance And it's the same there Mean but life from the dead. So those are my five reasons and I could give you Others to say that as I read this this three chapters 9 10 11 it begins with has the word of God fallen in view of the fact that so many Jewish people are Unbelieving lost cut off from Christ And he spends three and three chapters answering that question and his answer is no the word of God has not fallen And his first answer is not all Israel is Israel Verse 6 chapter 9 Arimnate God never meant by the promises that every single individual Jew would be guaranteed salvation no matter what Argument number two of Paul for why the word of God has not fallen is that? Some of Israel in every generation will be saved. There will always be a remnant physically ethnically That's the beginning of chapter 11 and Romans 9 27 Now I'm arguing. There's a third argument and this is where we part ways I'm arguing there's a third argument for the support of God's faithfulness to his word and that is not only are many Gentiles and some Jews Folded into the tree So God keeps his word to his remnant But one day that covenant is going to be fully realized in a massive Turning to Christ among the Jewish people and all Israel will be Saved through Christ same way. We're saved not a different way not two tracks one track one tree one Grafting back in they are able to be and I will Graph them back in again if they do not remain in their unbelief and the deliver is going to come and banish unbelief from them So they will be grafted back in and therefore the word of God To Abraham has not fallen now Closing thoughts How is that going to happen? Wouldn't you like to know So would I I? Can't go beyond what I'm able to see and I admit I see through a glass darkly and I'm not a prophetic Expert some people spend all their time figuring out details of prophecy. I don't I? Tried and I get so mixed up in the book of Revelation. I just say there are really clear important things I need to give my life to And if you are among the number who can devote your life to understand you the intricacies of biblical prophecy then You may make an appointment with me and try to set me straight, but I See a few things Massively important and I think clearly so I'm not going to give you details, but I will say this much if I had time We might look at three other prophecies that would suggest that the deliverer coming from Zion is in fact the second coming and In some way connected with the second coming the veil will be lifted the hardening will be removed They will look upon their Savior and believe now. Let me mention those three prophecies Zechariah 1210 and I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy So God's going to one day pour out upon Israel a Spirit that is gracious and produces please for mercy so that when they look on me on Him whom they have pierced They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn Son Isaiah 6 8 who has heard such a thing who has seen such things shall a land be born in a day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children Matthew 23 39 Jesus has just finished the most vicious Attack on the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders in his day that you could imagine calling them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites and brood of vipers It's really powerful indictment as if he is now Handing them over to the hardening that Paul says has come upon them but When you get to the end of that chapter and read Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem How often would I have gathered like a hen gathers her chicks and you would not your house is laid? desolate I think that is a a statement of judgment That consigns Israel for a season to hardness your house is laid desolate and Then come these amazing words you Will not see me again Until you say Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord When is that gonna happen? Didn't happen in the remaining 41 days of his life on earth When is that gonna happen? I do believe there's coming a day when somehow In connection with the final trumpet 14 million Jewish people more or less are Going to repent and believe in Jesus and be grafted back in to the olive tree So what then should we do? If that's true And I suppose it doesn't alter our behavior very much from those other two views Might alter the way we pray a little bit But we should all do this we should build a bridge between the Jewish community and the Christian community Out of the lumber of Romans 11 one bridge Not to and we should get on that bridge on our knees lest we look threatening For anti-Semitism is a real horrible reality in church history for which all Christians should repent and renounce it Get on our knees with the Apostle Paul in Romans 10 1 and say My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved And I will lay down my life. I won't take any life. I Will lay down my life To show the beauty of Christ to my Jewish neighbors and friends and secondly we should open our mouths on this bridge and Celebrate our enjoyment of their inheritance So as if possible by any means to make them jealous and I've explained what I think that means It means like over lunch tomorrow when you're talking about the movie you say something like I Just love Isaiah 53 I Just love that first picture in in that movie where it says by his Stripes we are healed or by his wounds. We are healed and he bore our transgressions I trust Jesus in order to inherit that promise made to Israel in Isaiah 53 Do you enjoy Isaiah 53? It's your book Something like that in other words not a not an indicting critical, but rather a celebrate of I love your messiah I love everything. He's given me out of the treasure house of your inheritance How would so be delighted if we could worship together in him? That's not ugly And it is most certainly not anti-Semitic the refusal to talk like that is anti-Semitic and at the judgment day those who do not Believe Will fault us if we build two Bridges Let's pray So father in heaven I pray now That there would be a deep humility upon the church of Jesus Christ for sins committed against Jewish people and Because the root supports us. We don't support the root and because our salvation is a means to their salvation and Because if we brag We too will be broken off Lord make us servants of the Jewish community for the sake of salvation from the wrath to come Return these remarkable days in our cities for the glory of the Messiah Jesus Christ Give us boldness and humility to that end I pray in his name Amen.
John Piper | Let us give ourselves to prayer and to the great work of gathering the fullness of the Gentiles, if by any means we might make Israel jealous of her treasures in Christ so that they believe and be saved.